I was supposed to get some painting done for today’s post, and failed in that. I actually got the stuff out, and then thought that with a new airbrush due to arrive tomorrow it would be a bit pointless trying to work out how to paint the Orcs with a brush when the whole idea was to use the fancy new toys.

So I put them away again.

I have made a little progress though, working out what needs converting among the orcs and ordering (or trying to order) some Red Box goblins. They’ve got a KickStarter up for just those models in plastic, and though it’s a good deal I’m hoping that I’ll be finished well before the September delivery date, so I’ve gone for the metal ones. No reply from the local stockist to 3 emails though 😦

Oh, and I’ve got some procreate too so I can try that instead of green stuff.

One thing that I didn’t do before, but which I can do now, is to tell you about the army composition. Now the God of Battles rules are public I don’t have to keep things under my hat any more 🙂

So, the 24 point Orc Warlords force I’ve gone for is as follows:

Main Force Units

2 x war orcs @ 6 points each = 12 points

2 x goblin rabble @ 3 points each = 6 points

2 x goblin pests @ 3 points each = 6 points

Total = 24 points

Command & Support

1 x greenskin shaman @ 17 points

1 x goblin wolf chariot @ 6 points

Total = 23 points

Total models = 57 + 1 chariot

So I have 1 point unused from C&S, but that’s not a worry.

In The Mix

I’ve tried exactly this force out once recently, and it did well on the tabletop. That was something of a (re)training scrap as neither of us had played in ages, and my opponent never very much. It was fun though, and worked much as I recalled: fast and bloody.

This force is also a good core army with a lot of solid, simple units and none of the fancy stuff from the main force (ironskins, wolf riders, raptor riders). That means that I’ve got a firm foundation of battle-worthy units to build on if I want to expand the army to 36 points or more later.

The C&S selection is a little harder to be certain about, and some orclings and bolt throwers are tempting. The great thing is that it’s only a handful of models to tinker with the army like that. Once you’ve got a core force painted then adding extras or variant army builds is (as I designed it to be) relatively inexpensive in both money and time.

Of course, as I really want to keep the shaman in the mix I’m going to have to expand the army size if I want to give him a bodyguard of nutters or include a mountain troll. They’re both too good and too many points to squeeze everything into just 24. Again, this decision making requirement is all part of the design 🙂

Hi Jake, I’m intrigued by GoB; it looks like it might be just the kind of game I’m after. However, I’m wondering if I’d be able to make an all wolf rider army, or at least with a majority of wolf riders units. I’ve got quite a few and really want to use them, along with a chariot and a shaman, something like that. Is this possible with the army list structure? Are you able to say what size a wolf rider unit is? Thanks!

Wolf rider units cost 5 points for an 8 model unit from Main Force. A wolf rider hero costs 7 points from the Command & Support section. The rules leave you free to have monotype armies if you want. They’re not usually as successful as combined arms forces, though that’s no reason not to give it a go.

5 points is awkward for a 24 point army as you waste 4 points, but for a 36 point army you can only lose 1 and have 7 units. That would certainly be a fast and fluid army! I’ve played with Hun armies, and I expect that a wolf rider force be similarly tricky for your opponent to nail down 🙂

All of your talk re: God of Battles has made me want to pick up a copy, which I will do shortly. In part because I can use the models I already own to make a few armies, whereas all the models I own don’t even add up to a single WFB army (but mostly because my interest was scattered, and my main focus was Skaven).

Also, according to my math, you have exactly 24 points in your command and support side: a shaman for 17 and a chariot for 7.

My mistake. The chariot should cost 6, not 7, so my total is correct (though my sum is not). I’ll fix that. Just me being a bit vacant at half 11 at night 😛

GoB doesn’t have an exact Skaven army equivalent. However, you could use them as beastmen for the Blood Gorged army, as some of the Thousand Tribes or as part of a Mercenary force (where ratmen are actually mentioned in some of the background text). The latter two armies are very mixed and so one of them would probably best suit your varied collection.

Thanks for the info. It’s good to know that I don’t have to sell all my Skaven to fund new armies.

So, I was wondering if there is any way in the rules to use up that one point you left over. Are there any magic items? A standard bearer or other part of a command squad? Anything that takes up one point? Or is that, again, back to the idea that sacrifices have to be made in designing the army?

It depends on the army. I don’t have the book to hand to check, but IIRC all armies have at least one 2 point option and most have a 3 pointer as well (if we’re talking about the C&S part of the lists). Nobody has a 1 point option that I can think of. So yes, it’s partly down to weighing up the options and making those hard choices. You are nearly always able to tessellate some combination of units to exactly fill the points – you just might not want those options. There are a couple of tricky armies at lower points costs, notably the Godless. They struggle to balance things exactly in thr Main Force because of their high costs, but even here they have a cheap option if they want to take them so it’s to impossible.

One thing that I’d like people to realise is that sometimes you will do better with a 23 point army that suits you than a 24 point army that doesn’t. It’s not just about the points.

It varies. On the whole though, Formed units are a little bigger than Loose and are usually 12 or 16 strong. Loose are more likely to be 8-12 with very elite bodyguard units sometimes being 6. There are a few exceptions, but this is a good general guide.